This Unique Controller Case Makes iPhone Perfect for Retro Gaming

Thanks to a few indie companies, the iPhone is now the best retro-game emulator around.

Thanks to a weird mixture of laws, game-emulator apps, and now, the rad-looking Gamebaby controller case for the iPhones 15 and 16 Pro Max, the iPhone has now—against Apple’s wishes—become possibly the ultimate pocket games machine. The Gamebaby is a super-clever, super low-tech take on accessory controllers and gives you a console that’s better than the real Game Boy ever was.

“iPhones […] were not an ideal choice for retro gaming until recently, primarily due to Apple’s strict policies against emulators in the App Store. With the recent policy changes, there’s now a plethora of emulators available, making the iPhone not only one of the best devices for retro gaming but also one of the easiest and most accessible options for a wide audience,” Yaroslav Melnyk, co-founder and CEO of game-streaming graphics company Kudos.tv, told Lifewire via email. “The combination of its power, display quality, and now, compatible accessories like the Gamebaby case positions the iPhone as a top contender in this space.”

Old School

The iPhone has long been a great mobile gaming platform, but recently, it has been transformed into the ultimate retro-gaming handheld. Ironically, Apple didn’t want this to happen but was pressured into it by Europe’s DMA laws, which forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS. This led directly to the Nintendo console emulator Delta becoming available on the iPhone in the EU via the Alt Store PAL, which Apple then attempted to stifle by suddenly allowing retro game emulators into its own App Store.

The result has been a blooming of retro-game consoles and PC game emulators. Emulation isn’t new, of course, and many of the console emulation apps now available on iOS have existed on other platforms for years. But just as smartphones totally usurped desktop computers for many people, so the iPhone is proving to be the best way to play old games on the go.

The iPhone has computer power to spare, an incredible screen, and even an AirPods game mode that cuts the latency of Bluetooth down to a point where you don’t notice the delay. This all means that you can easily carry a whole library of retro game ROMs in your pocket, ready to play.

But what the iPhone does not have is physical buttons, which is a big problem because pretty much all of those old games were designed for a gamepad and buttons. You can sort of emulate them with the touch screen, but the tactile feedback isn’t there. If you’ve ever tried to play more demanding levels of Super Mario World this way, then you’ll be familiar with the shortcomings of touch.

The answer is to use a controller with buttons, but—until now—these have added bulk to the phone.

Gamebaby

The Gamebaby is a clever two-part case that doesn’t require any power, Bluetooth, or wired connection the the iPhone. It looks like a regular case until you detach the bottom half, flip it around to cover the bottom half of the screen, and reattach it.

Those buttons are capacitive. In the same way that a pre-Apple Pencil stylus would transmit the magical capacitance power (official technical term) from your finger to the screen via a conductive stick, the conductive buttons here do the same thing for button presses. Combined with haptic feedback generated by the iPhone’s Taptic engine, they could be pretty indistinguishable from regular buttons.

“That’s genius, if you’re a retro gamer using Delta and travel it’s a must,” writes iPhone gaming fan Pezimak in a MacRumors forum thread participated in by Lifewire. “Saves having to take controllers with you.”

It’s designed to work with the Delta emulator and takes advantage of Delta’s skins, a feature that lets you customize the layout of its buttons. This makes the Gamebaby line up with the on-screen controls for seamless action.

The result is essentially a Game Boy in your pocket, only smaller, more powerful, and with a screen you can actually see. Yes, the controller obscures half the screen, but that’s exactly how the Game Boy looked anyway.

The only problem is that it might look a little too much like a Game Boy. According to Mac Stories’ John Vorhees, the Gamebaby has already become unavailable “in many countries, including the US And UK.” Maybe it’s just sold out, or perhaps Nintendo has gotten heavy-handed in jurisdictions more favorable to corporate bullying. Either way, this kind of thing looks like the future of pocket gaming.